Mormon Stories

Card's Mormon Stories provide a diversity of "religious" themes. Two of the stories are strongly rooted in contemporary Mormon culture and are cutting, inspirational views on moral themes. The other two are more general in nature, and are "religious" only in that they use Christian characters.

The "Mormon" Stories

Christmas and Helaman's House
The humble entrepreneur builds a huge house in a ritzy neighborhood. However, he feels somewhat empty. On Christmas Eve, one of her daughters invites over a young man who has recently returned from a mission to Colombia. This man eventually runs out because he can't stand the display of such wealth. Helaman then realizes that he can't stand it either, and with his family, decide to dedicate the house to serving the poor.

It is a nice uplifting story, but it did leave me wanting to read more about how this "dedication to the poor" turned out.

Worthy to Be One Of Us
Two empty-nesters do not remain empty for long as his father dies, resulting in his mother moving in with them. Then, at Thanksgiving, their son announces they have sold their home in anticipation of a March move, and plan on moving (with two kids and pregnant wife). The grandchildren are wild and crazy, and the daughter in law comes from barely-literate "white-trash" stock (while they are the "university professor" types. The wife discovers that the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law both feel inadequate because they feel their husbands have married beneath their social status. In the end, however, they realize that they both provide the "spiritual mooring" for their families, and can point to the strength of their children as a major accomplishment in their life.

This is another nice story showing that we should look at the positive in others, rather than worry about superficial "class" attributes.

The More General Stories

Neighbors
Two seniors were discussing another woman from their town. This woman was always praising her oldest child. However, he recently was executed due to his political involvement. They then discuss some of the unsavory events in his life and how he could have fit in if he didn't seem to be seeking trouble all the time.

Though it is never explicitly stated, it becomes obvious that this is the story of Christ in his home town. This is a nice quick story that cuts at the problems of gossip and the fact that even the most lauded characters can be portrayed in a negative light.

God Plays Fair Once Too Often
God and Lucifer run in to each other at a party and discuss a "bet" which they made. Lucifer gets to destroy the world if he can convince everyone that God's social communal sharing is evil, while rampant capitalism is good. As part of the deal, God has to shut off his omniscience for 150 years. Lucifer manages to get the Stalinism installed in this world under the name of communism. This system, while it takes the name of communism is actually an atheistic monopolistic system with most of the evils of capitalism and few of the benefits. After this system falls, capitalism is seen as the true force that can benefit the earth.

This story is primarily a political critique, positing that we must not overlook the deficiencies of capitalism. Just because the Stalinists failed so miserably in their pseudo-communism does not mean that all communist principles are bad (and capitalistic ones good.) An alternate view could be that the atheistic nature of the government was its true problem.